L.A. PARKER: Setup at Merion all about score

The 113th U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club provided a fantastic experience but don’t expect the world’s best players to return anytime soon to the Ardmore, Pa. course.

They rigged 6,996-yards of golf country then audaciously proclaimed this U.S. Open had nothing to do with a score.

USGA officials reiterated that one point while it pumped in enough mind control gases to make writers believe their nonsense.

Not about the score? Runner-up Phil Mickelson understood motive after his first final-round double-bogey at the 247-yard, par-3 Nol 3 hole.

“I didn’t think on 3, where the wind was howling into the tee, that we would be all the way back,” Mickelson said. Lefty could be seen saying a few niceties to USGA setup man, Mike Davis.

By the way, Mickelson used a 3-metal that landed his ball in thick fescue. His second shot ended 60 feet away from the cup. As Seve Ballesteros might explain, Mickelson miss, miss and then made for a five.

A similar complaint about course layout could have been verbalized at No. 9, as players teed up 246 yards away then attempted to hit a shot to a flag that had been tucked behind a bunker on a green that sloped away from the tee.

Balls were landing in the middle of the green then rolling to the back fringe or off the back of the green. Shots from such a long distance deserved a better landing experience.

Listen, the right setup guy can make professional golfers shoot over par on your local municipal course.

***Television can show only so much about a U.S. Open telecast.

Interesting incidents occur without being known to announcers who either follow specific groups or call action from a booth.

For instance, let’s head back to No. 9 where Scott Langley, who played just ahead of Tiger Woods and Matt Bettencourt, hit a tee shot that appeared to land in the front bunker.

But Langley and his caddie could not find their golf ball. They looked. And looked. Then were joined by marshals. Who helped look. Then his playing partner Hidekia Matsuyama entered the search party.

Meanwhile, Tiger looked slightly perturbed or anxious, probably because he had started with a birdie then hit a ball out of bounds at No. 2 which led to a triple-bogey eight, swung a club while he waited..

Back in the bunker the reconnaissance mission found zilch. Paydirt arrived when a marshal found Langley’s ball completely imbedded in a grassy area just outside the bunker. Langley took an unplayable lie. Hit a shot to about ten feet then rolled home a putt for bogey.

***An even better situation occurred on Friday as Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy completed their first round.

Scott stepped onto the 15th tee with a 1-under score then hit a drive left that slowly rolled out of bounds. Left here is death with OB just off the fairway. A fan attempted to help the Masters champion. He successfully kicked Scott’s ball back toward being in play. The ball seemed destined for the rough but it ricocheted off a leg and then a foot before settling three feet out of play.

But wait. The fan, some reincarnation of Jan Stenerud, made another attempt for a kick but another fan intervened. “You can’t do that. You can’t interfere with play like that,” he shouted. A scuffle ensued which stopped the foot-happy onlooker to help out Scott.

***Arnold Palmer never won the PGA Championship and it does not look like Mickelson will ever win a U.S. Open. After six second-place finishes and with Mickelson now moving toward 44, his time is running out.

Golf, even with technology, eventually comes for you like Ol’ Man Par, slowly, deliberately, inevititably. Time waits for no one. Golf eases you out of distance, determination and determined destiny.

While some professional golfers would consider a second-place finish a fantastic ending, runner-up is equal to whatever number made the cut. Players like Mickelson, Woods, Els, McIlroy, Scott, etc. play to win. Victory offers a reason for celebration.

Anything else means they didn’t perform when it counted most. After all the practice, preparation, workouts, and thinking, they did not get the job done.

***No such experience for Erica Herr, of New Hope, Pa., who this weekend heads off to Southampton, N.Y. for the U.S. Women’s Open.

The Council Rock North junior will play as an amateur while soaking up all the excitement of America’s national championship June 24-30 at Sebonack Golf Club.

***Finally, USGA officials held a meeting at Merion where they asked journalists to talk up their new initiative to improve the pace of play.

With golf still displaying growing pains of elitism and discrimination, especially after the Sergio Garcia/Tiger Woods affair, one might have hoped that USGA could engage these issues.

Slow play? File that with “it’s not about the score.”

***Michael Lettiere, a tax supervisor for Lear & Pannepacker LLP, won last week’s U.S. Open “Up A Sleeve” contest with his choice of Justin Rose. Lettiere had Rose with a 275 score.

Let’s take a break this week but you can start sending your pick and score for next week’s Women’s U.S. Open.

I know, Inbee Park.L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist and golf writer. Reach him at laparker@trentonian.com.